Electoral agency meets strategic goals for absentee vote, according to official

Early this week, the president of Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, or IFE, Leonardo Valdés Zurita discarded the possibility of suspending the federal elections despite the current fight against organized crime, during a conference reported by several media outlets including the political magazine Proceso.com

The end of the intercampañas, which is the period between the primaries and the official campaigning, is about to end on March 30.

With the candidates and the parties getting ready for full blown official campaigning, the IFE continues its surveillance of mass media trying to keep proselytism from emerging during these last few days. El Universal reported that the IFE’s Monitoring Center is even more advanced than the Interior Ministry, benefiting from an investment of $150 million pesos, or close to $12 million.

Currently, the paper company Papelera Chihuahua based in that border state has begun the production of the paper to be used in the ballots for the federal elections, also reports El Universal.

Also, according to the report:

Jorge Rafael Ríos, who is the general director for Talleres Gráficos de México, affirmed that the company guaranties the printing of the ballots with security mechanisms that make forgery impossible.

According to Antonio Efrén Robles, who heads the Electoral Liaison for Mexican Voters Abroad, the effort to promote the vote among the Mexican expats has been largely successful:

The general objective of the strategic plan for the vote of the Mexicans with residence abroad was to increase participation of those nationals, while at the same time reducing the cost compared to the 2005-2006 electoral cycle. Therefore, it’s possible to affirm that the objectives for the project were met successfully.

Also, the postal applications received by the mail registered an increment of 8 percent compared to 2005-2006. But the number of valid applications won’t be determined until the processing of all the information pertaining to the applications is received and processed.

While the budget for the absentee vote for the period 2011-2012 hasn’t been completely exhausted, resources for $203 million pesos, or about $15 million, have been considered to be allocated in 24 months. This represents an expenditure of 25% less that in the budget for 2005-2006, which was distributed along 17 months.

Concerning the number of applications discarded, Robles mentioned:

It’s impossible to determine the number of applications discarded until the processing of applications is finished on March 31.

However, between October 1 and January 15 the most frequent inconsistencies were:
1. One sided copy with only the back of the of the voter ID card
2. Envelope with more than one application
3. Application with a format different than the one approved
4. Application with a zip code instead of the street address
5. Application without a copy of the voter ID card
6. Application without signature or fingerprint
7. A different signature on the copy of the voter ID card than the one on the application

And also, the Robles provided the below table with “top states from the U.S. that mailed applications to the (Nominal Listing of Electors with Residence Abroad) LNERE.”

The numbers represent the number of applications received at the moment. (02/21/12)

Federal Electoral Process 2011-2012

No.

State

Total applications received for 2011-2012

1

California

12,676

2

Texas

7,265

3

Illinois

5,350

4

Florida

3,111

5

New York

2,622

Total

31,024

Federal Electoral Process 2005-2006

No.

State

Total applications in 2006

1.

California

18,665

2.

Texas

7,930

3.

Illinois

4,648

4.

Arizona

1,974

5.

New York

1,861

Total

35,078

The absentee ballots need to be mailed back to the IFE before June 30, according to their website